Trulia’s new aid for homebuyers: Disaster maps

One of the constant battle cries for the Internet is that better information will create more accurate prices for goods and services. The more data people have about a product, the more they can decide whether the cost is a good deal or not.

Previously Trulia noted earthquakes and floods. Now its adding wildfires, tornadoes and hurricanes. Most natural disasters are hard to hide from the history books (the way leaky pipes might be). Floods bubble up along the Mississippi waterway and elsewhere. Hurricanes ravage the Gulf Coast. Tornados whip through the midwest on an annual basis.

We see this on the news all the time.

But finding out exactly where those disasters hit neighborhoods is a little trickier. That’s what Trulia is hoping to shed light on. The company is now pulling in data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 1950-2012 for hurricanes, US Forest Service data from 2001-2010 for wildfires and NOAA and Enhanced Fujita Scale, which shows accumulated energy from tornadoes, along with tracks for each storm from 1950-2011, for tornados.

However, it’s worth noting the adage “lightning never strikes in the same place twice” — ie. natural disasters rarely replicate their exact path of destruction. So having such finite information may not be completely necessary. You just know that if you live on the gulf coast, hurricanes are going to be a part of your life, eventually.

But no doubt it’s giving people a better picture of Mother Nature’s historical rampages in the area should arm them with better information when buying a new home. (No doubt their insurer is aware of the risks.)

Oh, and if you want to live in a spot with the lowest risk of natural disaster, apparently Syracuse, New York is where you should be heading. But be ready for the winters.